"They would have to be old, indeed, for star-positions to be misplaced."
Barr sat quite still, while the other's eyes drifted away into a reverie.
He noticed that the nuclear force-shield had vanished from about the man and admitted dryly to himself that his person no longer seemed formidable to strangers - or even, for good or for evil, to his enemies.
He said, "My house is poor and my resources few.
You may share what I have if your stomach can endure black bread and dried corn."
Mallow shook his head,
"No, I have eaten, and I can't stay.
All I need are the directions to the center of government."
"That is easily enough done, and poor though I am, deprives me of nothing.
Do you mean the capital of the planet, or of the Imperial Sector?"
The younger man's eyes narrowed,
"Aren't the two identical?
Isn't this Siwenna?"
The old patrician nodded slowly,
"Siwenna, yes.
But Siwenna is no longer capital of the Normannic Sector.
Your old map has misled you after all.
The stars may not change even in centuries, but political boundaries are all too fluid."
"That's too bad. In fact, that's very bad.
Is the new capital far off?"
"It's on Orsha II.
Twenty parsecs off.
Your map will direct you.
How old is it?"
"A hundred and fifty years."
"That old?" The old man sighed.
"History has been crowded since.
Do you know any of it?"
Mallow shook his bead slowly.
Barr said, "You're fortunate.
It has been an evil time for the provinces, but for the reign of Stannell VI, and he died fifty years ago.
Since that time, rebellion and ruin, ruin and rebellion."
Barr wondered if he were growing garrulous.
It was a lonely life out here, and he had so little chance to talk to men.
Mallow said with sudden sharpness,
"Ruin, eh?
You sound as if the province were impoverished."
"Perhaps not on an absolute scale.
The physical resources of twenty-five first-rank planets take a long time to use up.
Compared to the wealth of the last century, though, we have gone a long way downhill - and there is no sign of turning, not yet.
Why are you so interested in all this, young man?
You are all alive and your eyes shine!"
The trader came near enough to blushing, as the faded eyes seemed to look too deep into his and smile at what they saw.
He said, "Now look here. I'm a trader out there - out toward the rim of the Galaxy.
I've located some old maps, and I'm out to open new markets.
Naturally, talk of impoverished provinces disturbs me. You can't get money out of a world unless money's there to be got.
Now how's Siwenna, for instance?"
The old man leaned forward,
"I cannot say.
It will do even yet, perhaps.